Redartz: Greetings; this week we are engaging again in a bit of `get to know each other' . Our two questions are somewhat related, and over the years we have possibly touched upon this area. Nevertheless, this week we take a good look at how we spend our time and money when we can spoil ourselves a little. Everyone needs a little 'me time', and it doesn't hurt to give yourself a treat now and then. In that spirit, here's our questions:
1. When you have the opportunity to splurge a little on yourself these days, what do you do / buy ?
2. Looking back over your life, other than comic books, what hobbies/ pastimes did you/ do you indulge in?
As always, I wouldn't ask you to answer anything that I wouldn't, thus here are my responses:
1. Lately I've been busy on Ebay. Splurging generally involves the purchase of a vintage comic, especially a "Sugar and Spike", or a Silver Age horror anthology. . While my collection overall has been shrinking, I still pick up a book here and there. Of course I'm also splurging on music, adding cds to my collection at an unprecedented pace. At this point in time cds seem to be priced dirt cheap, and it's a great opportunity. Just picked up a 5 disc boxed set of "Ken Burns Jazz" for 4 dollars and change. Figure it's just a matter of time before cds become the next hot retro item...
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| A few recent splurges... |
2. My father had many interests, and he passed that trait on to his progeny. At one time or another I've collected coins, stamps, baseball cards, leaves, rocks, fossils, records and Hot Wheels. Most of those phases came and went. But I still enjoy studying fossils, and have a big slab of Ordovician seabed (with crinoids, brachiopods, bryozoans and trilobites) on my desk at work. And then listening to that music mentioned above is another treasured pastime. Add in the watercolor painting, and reading- there's not really time for work, but I fit it in!
Now then, let's hear about all your interests and indulgences!
Oh, for the benefit of anyone interested in fossils, here is the fossiliferous slab from my work desk. Found in an outcrop near Cincinnati, Ohio on a trip with a group of local rockhounds. A remarkable feeling, pulling such a piece from it's resting place and knowing you're the first creature to lay eyes upon it for some 200 million years plus...
44 comments:
Splurging = CDs, fiction for the kindle or art instruction books.
Other hobbies over the years = chess for a while, later online poker and now the painting. And collecting music (mainly blues & Southern rock, sorry Sean) has been there all along.
Splurging:
1. Omnibus collections of my favorite comics. I try to limit this to my absolute favorites, which tend to focus on Silver Age and Bronze Age Marvels, such as Fantastic Four, Avengers, Daredevil, John Carter of Mars and Master of Kung Fu.
2. For those that aren't collected due to popularity or unclear publishing rights, smaller runs sent to book binders is my next splurge. I love all the Comico Jonny Quest series, so I'm planning on getting these bound together for easier access on a shelf.
3. Model kits - many of my favorite kits were accidentally crushed by a friend leaning against a desk hutch that crashed to the ground in junior high. Though I'm limited on display space and the ability to find replacements, I am enjoying rebuilding and painting some old favorites. These include the old 1970s 'snap-it' Disney kits featuring the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean which have been reissued recently. My wife gave me the reissue of the Lost in Space kit with the entire crew vs the cyclops. I never had this one as a kid, but always wanted it.
4. Books about Disney Imagineers, such as Claude Coats and Marc Davis.
5. Either buying toys of favorite shows - old and new - or creating figures of characters never made. I have been gathering together parts and pieces to assemble figures from the Fantastic Four supporting characters, such as Agatha Harkness (FF version, not Disney+), Wyatt Wingfoot and various villains, such as Rama Tut.
6. Adding to my library of DVDs of favorite movies such as Ray Harryhausen Sinbad adventures and various H-B cartoon series.
7. Travel! We love to travel and have been lucky to have been to almost all the US states, as well as many other countries. Of course, Disney parks are frequently visited, but we love to plan out 5 week driving trips around the states. So much to see!
8. Increasing my music library of classic rock and jazz.
Other hobbies ... well, most of what I listed above are other hobbies. Disney, Models, Toys, H-B cartoons, music and travel. Photography would also make the list.
For splurging I usually go for books; I have a huge "to-read" pile and it keeps growing. As for other hobbies, I collected baseball and hockey cards as a kid, but not anymore. I watch soccer (or football, for the Europeans here), if that counts as a hobby. And I read a lot, although that's more of a passion than a hobby.
For splurging I tend to buy silver/bronze age comics that I used to have or missed first time around – and I never fail to be amazed at just how much folk ask for them!
As a kid /young adult I played football (soccer for you North American guys 😊 ) for a few teams (School, works teams etc) and was a pretty avid football fan attending games. I also collected football cards, stamps, Matchbox cars, records (LPs) and enjoyed drawing. Sadly I am to old to play football now (well have been for some time) but I still go to the odd game and follow my local team and watch international football when Scotland are playing etc. I occasionally still draw when time permits.
I’ve always enjoyed reading and music. I would usually go to the nearby city once a week and buy comics, books, and music when I was younger.
Now I don’t really read a lot of comics, other than Kindle collections of my favorites when I was younger, but I do buy lots of CDs….blues, rock, jazz, and several other genres. There’s a great used record store not too far away with a wide selection and great prices. I buy lots of books, too….mostly about musicians and bands.
Splurging -
I cherry pick Time magazines for certain subjects off ebay. I learn a lot that has since been forgotten. For example, I've been curious of America's response to the German invasion of the USSR in Lune 1941, so I'm in the process of buying mid-June through August 1941.
I will also cherry pick a golden age Blackhawk, Plastic Man, or Daredevil, lol.
Other hobbies back in the day - coins, stamps, beer cans and signs.
Other interests now - In the past 15 years it's been playing and watching soccer (that Sunday Liverpool- Manchester City game was top shelf!!!) and watching Formula 1 Grand Prix racing (I prefer Max Verstappen to Lewis Hamilton),
Interestingly, watching Premiere League (British Soccer) and the bi-weekly Formula 1 Grand Prix has only been possible with the advancements in internet / telecomms the past couple decades.
As a plug for F1 racing, which is like no other, there is a super show on Netflix. It's a rather dramatic documentary that is on its 4th season. An article about it is linked below.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/10/formula-1-drive-to-survive/619814/
[Part one of two. It's one of THOSE posts. . . ]
1) Oh golly-- my targeted splurge/spend reflex has really toned down over the last few years, and has quietly morphed into giving myself permission to modestly impulse-buy now & then (There are a pair of men's quad indoor roller skates sitting in my Amazon cart even as we speak. Just waiting for my daughter's broken wrist to heal before I make the purchase so I can continue to re-learn how the heck I use to navigate those things!) (She broke her wrist roller-skating with me, as fate would have it---) Broken/dead/missing part from an old NINTENDO legacy system? I'll just up & order it as soon as I see the need.
Ah-- wait, wait, wait-- second-hand/yardsale/rummage sale/thrift store Christmas decorations. That remains as something I am simply unable to pass up if the item(s) is(are) eye-catching enough. Especially if they are truly vintage. Vintage wrapping paper too. Just. . . take my money. . . here. . . On a more pragmatic front, I no longer purchase the Economy/Bargain Line anymore when it comes to hand tools, power tools, landscaping tools, etc. To my frugal sensibilities, that counts as "splurging", and I daresay it is well worth it. Paid $60 for the "good" post-hole digger at HomDep recently, rather than the cheap $35 dollar model (the type I've broken 3 of in my life)-- and good lord, it was like being born again. . . ! Even an extremely basic task like digging post-holes is made vastly easier with the purchase of a better grade of tool. . . who knew?
(HB)
2) Comics were always my main pastime/hobby as well-- but it's been, gosh, ten years now since I was buying anything, give or take? And the hobby-space in my life, time-wise, has often been taken up by the fact that I am a semi-professional, part-time actor (mostly a small professional theater guy, me--- used to be DEEPLY imbedded in dinner theater as well). Generally, I am always in something, or rehearsing something, or working on readings, etc, etc-- and it does eat up a ton of bandwidth that one might otherwise use for building model airplanes or becoming a competitive SCRABBLE whiz---. Almost any activity you can think of doing has to get past the gatekeeping question of "Shouldn't you be learning lines right now instead? Hmm?" TBH, that is EXACTLY what I should be doing this very minute. Yeesh. . .
And yet, there are other current passions and pastimes, no question: I volunteer at a Parrot Rescue in our area, and find that it occupies a LOT of my idle thinking. (30 years ago, my wife and I spent a few years successfully breeding Timneh African Greys-- THERE is a demanding, exhausting hobby I would never steer anyone into!). I am a binge-watcher like no one's business when the opportunity presents itself--- perfectly capable of going 12 hours with a series I love. I don't read as much as I used to-- but Terry Pratchett/Discworld and Agatha Christie (and similar) are my reliable go-to's. Christmas decorating, as I mentioned, does start early for me-- nearly a hobby status. And lord knows, I can't say I "enjoy" them. . . but I do take on some pretty hefty house projects fairly regularly w/ much prompting from my lovely wife-- and I do have a facility for them, so while I don't actually "like" doing them, they are very satisfying to complete. (Exception is splitting an unbelievable amount oak firewood a few years ago, after having some dangerous trees felled. Man I LOVED that! It is one of the most satisfying physical tasks I've ever engaged in-! It truly took on video-game level of addiction while it lasted. . . )
And finally. . . Sudoku. I am a fiend for Sudoku. Hand me a tough Samurai Sudoku (five interlocked grids), and you can park me in a corner for as long as you need. . .
Beatlemaniac; Classic Radio lover; Musical Theater kid; Old movie lover; HORROR movie lover; Reformed childhood television addict; former National Ski Patrol; casual bicycler (w/ the wife); have always loved dinosaurs and fossils too; chord-pounder on the tenor guitar; trombone/baritone horn; sometimes boost the bass section at my wife's church choir.
And now she's got us practicing with the handbell choir, 'cause they recently found a full set of them, like, under the basement stage storage area or something. 'Cause we NEED more things on our schedule. . . Ha! (Okay, it is unbeLIEVABLY fun, I cannae deny it-!)
HB
Juuuust checking to see if I've got myself logged back in with the correct account (!)
HB
Very well done, all! A well-rounded, wide ranging group we have here. Who else wants to share?
Ah, well done, HB! I totally understand the challenges of accounts, passwords and the like. My Facebook account was recently hacked and I'm still trying to get fully restored...
Dammit--- I killed the thread again---
My boss begs me not to communicate via email if it's at all possible to avoid it.
It was the ONE negative note on my last performance evaluation. . . (heh). . .
HB
Red, your slab of Ordovician seabed sounds awesome! Sadly my own fossil collection consists of a single item - a "devil's toenail" which is a kind of mollusc officially called Gryphaea. I don't know how old my fossil actually is but Gryphaea first evolved in the late Triassic and went extinct about 40 million years ago. I can't even claim that I found the fossil myself as it was given to me 30 years ago by a woman called Aida (who was named after the opera by Giuseppe Verdi).
On splurging, I don't do it very often but I was in my local supermarket this morning and I had a bit of a splurge. I bought a hardback book called 'Earthshot: How To Save Our Planet' plus the latest issue of SFX magazine (which reviews sci-fi/fantasy/horror in films, TV, books, comics etc) plus a bottle of Welsh whiskey plus a caramel-flavoured cheesecake plus a smoked Polish sausage plus a packet of liquorice plus a bottle of Dr. Pepper plus a slab of Christmas cake...
By the way, Red - there was a story on the news yesterday about a fossil discovered in Wales which is the oldest meat-eating dinosaur ever discovered in Britain. It lived in the late Triassic and was only the size of a chicken but apparently it was still the top predator of its' day. The new dinosaur has been given the name "Pendraig Milnerai" as pendraig means "chief dragon" in medieval Welsh. Amazingly this fossil was first discovered in the 1950s but it was only properly examined and identified very recently!
I always fancied starting a fossil collection so might look into that as a wee older life hobby.
CH. The Premier League is English soccer not British ( major issue for all 4 UK nations in relation to football ) even although they have a few (3 I think) Welsh teams in it. Scotland, Wales and BI have our own national leagues. Were a small but complicated island lol
BI arghhh Imeant NI (Northern Ireland) sorry.
Regarding fossils, crinoids are often found on the shores of lake michigan and they are like 500,000,000 years old or so...
https://digthedunes.com/crinoid-find-one/
Regarding English / British Soccer, it is interesting the 4 "states" of the UK get to compete as if they were nations in the World Cup. That said, I have to think a UK team would fare better than an England team. Imagine if Bale had played with England in 2018? In the meantime, I would be happy to see the USA in a semi-final in the World Cup before I end up in the bone orchard, lol.
HB- fear not! The resilience of these threads to meander all over is well known...
Colin- thanks for the info on Pendraig! It's fascinating seeing so many new discoveries, and new interpretations of old discoveries. And that's a great splurge you shared! Glad to know your UK stores are offering Christmas goodies this early too. I feared that only US retailers stocked Christmas before Halloween...
McScotty- one nice thing about fossils- they really put time into perspective. Makes hitting 60 years feel less monumental!
Charlie- speaking of the Lake Michigan area, have you ever encountered a Petoskey stone? Very cool fossil corals (usually well smoothed by wave action) and the official state rock of Michigan, if memory serves...
Hi Red... IIRC, the Petosky Stone is the Michigan State stone? I've been up in that area at least a few times and have more than a few Petoskeys around the house. Very nice fossils and quite inexpensive.
Regarding fossils making 60 feel less young... I would agree except I am also watching the original Hawaii 50 on the rerun channel (9:45 PM in Chicago) and I suddenly feel old again. LOL.
CH: The World Cup etc is actually represented by football associations not countries. As Scotland and England (Wales and Ireland) were the first associations they were represented as such and as Scotland and England especially were early footy giants ( Scotland still have the largest football attendances in Europe at club and international level) that remained. Other associations such as Spain, France etc were set up on country levels. A UK team would be boycotted by Scotland we already don't participate officially in an OLYMPIC UK team as we won't give up our national status and everything would end up being called England. Such is the appeal of soccer that representing as 4 nations also helps keep the UK together ....for the time being.
We also went through a major fossil phase in our household when youngster HBSon went through that dinosaur-centric stage that lots of little kids do--- and his was definitely turned up to 11. . . It sucked ALL of us in. Plus my wife has always had a fondness for pretty Ammonites. While we don't have a ton, the centerpiece of our general living room "display counter" is a large slab of polished orthoceras (orthocerii?). About 24" x 30". It's just a lovely thing, regardless of how interested in fossils one might be. I usually hang Christmas garland on it with mini-ornaments....
(We also discovered it's bigger than the piece on display at the Smithsonian. . . which looks like it could have come from the same deposit and restorer. . . Hopefully it's not a hot, missing artifact. . . yikes!)
HB-- currently on the Paleontological Lam. . . .
Well Good Luck McScotty on your qualifying this weekend for the World Cup. I see Scotland is currently in 2nd place in their group!
By the way, since you are scottish, maybe you would know. My Great Grandmother's last name was Shepard and she was from Dundee. Is that a pretty common name you think? I'm thinking to quickly track down the family tree from the last person in the extended family who knows the family tree in that branch.
But I kind of want to do a little homework in advance, lol.
Hmm yeah my treats are the usual things, music CDs, DVDs, chess sets. Of course, my main things to buy have always been books (including comic books and novels). I tend to buy Bronze Age comics rather than modern ones, although I'll buy a new comic if it looks promising; similarly, I gravitate towards old books with yellowing pages rather than most new ones. I loved to peruse old used bookstores, but they seem to be a vanishing breed these days.
- Mike 'old school reader' from Trinidad & Tobago.
CH, Israel ( that famous European team) are a bit of a thorn in our side we've played them 9 times since 1981 won 5 lost 2 and drawn 2 but we always struggle against them. Shepherd / Shepard although seemingly a Scottish name (didn't know that) isn't that common a name in Scotland and isn't noted in the top 100 names on the Scottish census. Good tracking her down.
My father was Scottish even though his surname was Jones.
Red, thanks for adding that photo of your Ordovician fossils, fascinating stuff! To think those are creatures that were alive around 450 million years ago is mind-boggling!
Took the plunge and bought a small / medium sized ammonite at a local market . Looks very nice on our shelves. Will use that purchase to gear us up to go searching for others in the Highlands next time we visit.
Paul, I didn't realise it was so easy to get hold of a fossil.
Yeah you can pick up some stuff on beaches, rocky areas etc in where there are known fossil deposits. They won't be big things but tou can get ancient shark teeth, ammonites etc. Obviously if you found a T Rex bone you would report it My partner picked up 2 ammonites about ten years ago in South coast of England ( all above board) when she was on holiday ( lost in a house move) but most times you get nothing seemingly
Paul, I meant that I didn't know you could buy fossils in a market!
Red, our British stores start selling Christmas produce in early September or even late August but only in a limited way. They won't go full-on festive crazy until after Halloween - so the Christmas cards and decorations aren't on sale in my local supermarket yet.
The Lake Michigan area is a veritable buffet of natural history if you are aware of the surroundings.
A few miles away from the Lake is a street called Ridge Road. That used to be Lake Michigan's shore 10,000 years ago.
Two block from the Lake is a street I lived on called Indian Boundary. Indians had to live / traverse north between the Lake and the Boundary. It was designated the Indian Boundary by a treaty 200 years ago. The Indians got what is now choice real estate because the whites deemed it useless, since nothing could be grown in the swampy areas.
On the lake shore are 500,000,000 year old crinoid fossils for the taking. They are small, a little wider than a pencil eraser with a hole in the middle which was the spine. Only rarely does one see someone walk the beach and identify them, perhaps for making a necklace.
This is in Indiana. In Michigan the Petoesky stones are prevalent. Also there apparently are certain streams / fields where Indian arrow heads are still abundant. Because the Indians really had a stone-age culture, the only thing that remains of their 1000s of years are those stone arrow heads.
And in Illinois there is an area where fossils are abundant and free for the taking as well an hour or so from Chicago
https://digthedunes.com/crinoid-find-one/
COLIN - Fossils here are free for the taking at various sites. See the link below.
https://interactive.wttw.com/prehistoric-road-trip/detours/where-to-find-fossils-in-your-state#i-state
By the way, WTTW is Chicago's version of Public Television or PBS. When I discuss watching all those great British shows on "Masterpiece Theatre" they are seen in Chicago land on this station called WTTW, Channel 11 on the Telly.
Also, more so in colder weather, there are "rock shows" for those who collect such things and fossils are abundantly for sale. They truly are wonderful to see.
Red - that really is a wonderful piece on your desk!
I was going to suggest that maybe you come up a day or two earlier, before a comic book show, and we try a little fossil hunting at the Braidwood site?
I've never done it! Sound interesting! THe permit is below.
But if we cojoin this to a comic convention it'd have to be the big "Wizard" show in August. Fossil hunting is restricted from like March - October.
https://www2.illinois.gov/dnr/Parks/Activity/Documents/MZB_FossilPermit.pdf
Colin, you can buy fossils in the UK from dealers etc. We have a large antique market near us and there are 3 stall that sell them, mostly small items. We were on holiday last month on South coast in England and there were loads of dealers shops selling some amazing items like small Dino skull but at a really high cost.
HB- I never considered fossils as potential sources of Christmas decoration; excellent!
Mike from TnT- you're quite right about those used bookstores. Founts of hidden treasures; just not the same at Barnes & Noble (although it's nice to explore there too). Fortunately, there remain a few such places here and there...
McScotty and Colin- Ammonites are incredible; beautiful fossils! Can't imagine going out and finding them on one's own, but then again other fossils are located thusly. I've seen some amazing ammonites preserved in Pyrite. Magnificent.
Charlie- Arrowheads are found around Indiana too; but I was never fortunate enough to find one. But Crinoids and Bryozoans abound here, as well as Brachiopods and Trilobites. Glad you and Colin enjoyed the slab; it's got three fragmentary Trilobites among all the seafloor detritus. Man, we could talk about fossils at a level to rival that of comic book discussion!
Oh, and that fossil hunt would be a joy and a pleasure!
Hi Red - For sure there must be Indian Arrow Heads around Indiana. I mean, Indiana was named for the presence of so many Indians.
Where I live, the Ojibwa (Chippewa), Potawatomi, et al. had a large presence. And of course the great Tecumseh sought to rally all the Indians in america to push the white man back across the Appalachians at Lafayette, Indiana. (Never trust jealous half-brothers is the moral to that story?)
But - in spite of all that Indian activity I've just never heard of locations where one was "guaranteed" to find an arrow head.
Then again I grew up in the industrialized northwest so it wasn't like we had connections to the more rural areas of the state. Though, I lived on Indian Boundary and often walked on another street called Potawatomi Trail.
I know we're at the tail-end of the thread, BUT-- I have a question: What are the circumstances that seem to make old arrowheads a relatively common artifact? Surely they weren't seen as being "disposable" and easily-discarded, were they? Each one was basically a small stone tool that had to be crafted by hand, right? Ya lose one, and there's an hour or so of your (already difficult) day gone. . .
Or am I just too woefully underinformed on the topic to understand--?
HB
HB- I don't really know. But, it seems reasonable that there were so many lost over the centuries (how many times did the unlucky hunter miss his target and lose his arrow in the process?). Must have been frustrating...
Red-- There's an Archeological PhD thesis just RIPE for the plucking, here---!
HB
Below is a link... a thorough, interesting, 5 minute read.
In general though the Indians lived in campsites, perhaps permanently, or repeatedly at the same times of year if nomadic.
There would often have been areas where game where typically found and killed repeatedly, notably watering holes for elk, deer, buffalo.
As the article alludes to, if this went on over decades or centuries then the arrow heads would aggregate over time in these hunting areas. And since they are of stone, the arrow heads could have aggregated over hundreds to thousands of years in these certain hunting areas.
The site I know of in Michigan is indeed near a river/ stream. Hey - we all need water including animals- so looking near water or dried streams is the best strategy and tracks with the site I've heard of.
https://www.rockseeker.com/native-american-indian-arrowheads/
Red, et al. The Cahokia Mound settlement, about 20 minutes north east of St. Louis does have classes on making arrow heads!
I actually intended to attend the recent one but things got in the way. That said, not sure what I what do with a "Charlie certified" arrowhead?
Geeze, Charlie clicked and HTML and found the perfect answer. Below is a copy/paste from the article:
https://www.rockseeker.com/how-to-find-arrowheads-in-the-woods/
Many arrows and spears were shot or thrown at deer and other game while they approached the water. Many of these arrows and spears missed their target, only to be lost in the creek or tall grass. Spend time looking for these lost arrowheads in the eroded sides of the creek as well as on the bottom creek bed and gravel bars.
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